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July 6, 2011
The United States is one of the least-taxed countries in the world, Citizens for Tax Justice said in a report that comes as some lawmakers are refusing to consider revenue increases as part of the negotiations to raise the federal debt ceiling....
In a June 30 report, the liberal tax group said that in 2009, only two OECD countries, Chile and Mexico, had lower overall taxes as a share of gross domestic product than the United States. Only Iceland had lower corporate taxes as a share of GDP in 2009, the report noted.
CTJ said it based its findings on the most recent data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Census Bureau....
U.S. Taxes Ranked 26th, Report Says
....“In most cases, the difference in tax levels between the U.S. and OECD countries is not even close,” the report said. Of those 25 OECD countries with taxes higher than those in the United States, 22 have taxes that are at least 25 percent higher, and 15 have taxes at least 50 percent higher, CTJ noted....
Corporate Taxes Seen Low As Share of GDP
Although many corporate leaders point to the fact that other OECD countries have lowered their corporate rates in recent years, CTJ said, they “fail to mention that these counties have also closed corporate tax loopholes while the U.S. has expanded them.”
As a result, the report said, the United States collects less corporate taxes as a share of GDP than all but one of the 26 OECD countries for which data are available. In 2009, CTJ said, only Iceland had lower corporate taxes as a share of GDP.